A Virginia man pleaded guilty Thursday before his retrial to fatally shooting popular South Baltimore bartender Alex Wroblewski in Locust Point almost five years ago.
Marquese Winston, 28, of Richmond, Virginia, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and gun charges in exchange for 55 years in prison, with all but 20 years suspended. He received five years of probation.
“This was a hard fought conviction for a case that shocked the city and especially the family of a dearly beloved man. My heart goes out to Mr. Wroblewski’s loved ones who had to endure the tremendous pain of this senseless act of violence,” Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said in a news release.
Wroblewski, 41, was shot and killed outside the Royal Farms on Key Highway in November 2017. He was walking home after tending bar at the The Row House Grille in Federal Hill.
He had stopped at Royal Farms around 1:15 a.m. for milk and cookies, then came out of the store just as Winston and his girlfriend, Tonya Hayes, walked in.
The couple had traveled from Richmond along with her son, Tivontre Gatling-Mouzon, and pulled in for gas. Surveillance cameras captured their encounter.
Wroblewski appeared intoxicated when he left the store, prosecutors said.
Winston returned to the car and retrieved something from the back seat. Then Winston and Gatling-Mouzon began to follow Wroblewski. Prosecutors told a jury they stalked Wroblewski.
Hayes returned to the car and she began to drive behind them.
Winston confronted Wroblewski then shot him once in the stomach, prosecutors said. The three drove away and Gatling-Mouzon was arrested the next day in Richmond. Hayes and Winston were arrested later in Atlanta, Georgia.
A Baltimore jury convicted Winston in 2019 of second-degree murder and gun charges. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Jurors also convicted Hayes of gun charges in 2019. She was sentenced to four years in prison. Prosecutors said she has since been released.
Gatling-Mouzon testified against them in exchange for eight years in prison on a charge of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. He was paroled last year over objections from the Wroblewski family.
Winston’s conviction, however, was overturned on procedural grounds. His attorney was barred from asking potential jurors about legal principles of impartiality, the presumption of innocence and a defendant’s right not to testify. In a case called Kazadi v. State, the Maryland Court of Appeals found these questions should have been allowed.
The appeals court opinion has overturned multiple cases in which defense attorneys were not permitted to ask jurors the questions, including the controversial prosecution of Keith Davis Jr.
Winston was headed for a retrial when he pleaded guilty Thursday. His defense attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
Nicknamed “Albo,” Wroblewski gradated from Mount Saint Joseph High School in 1994 and was well-known around South Baltimore. Friends and family placed a plaque in his memory in Latrobe Park and raised $55,000 for a scholarship in his name at Mount Saint Joseph.
“We are glad that a plea agreement was reached and that we did not have to go through a trial again,” said Mary Kay Wroblewski, his mother. “It’s been very heart-wrenching to have this hanging over us. We are grieving our son and will never get over his loss. We miss him every day.”
